Pages

VDC Roundup

When I started writing this update, I was going to make it a quick one - I only had a few examples and articles from the team. I should have known that everyone was just too busy this week to email around images. I'm so glad that they got to it on Friday because this week includes some really exciting examples!

0 1 M O D E L Q U A L I T Y C H E C K
One of Tocci's Assistant Project Managers was reviewing the 100% DD model in Navisworks before doing his steel takeoff and noticed something peculiar: discrepancies between the drawings and model. For example, the beam highlighted below is W24x55 in the model, but noted as W18x86.

Although its frustrating when design teams don't model perfectly for BIM Uses, we all need to understand that there is a crunch to get out drawings and sometimes things are faked. The important thing to is to check model quality before blindly using it - trust but verify. Our VDC team does exactly that in our formal QAQC process (in fact, we caught the same error , but hadn't finalized the list to review with our operations team yet). I'm more excited that as an APM, he is intuitively thinking exactly the way we do - this is a great small example of blurring the lines between VDC and operations.0 2 F A C A D E S T U D Y
One of Tocci's VDC Modelers has been working with our client and our VP of Planning and Cost Engineering, on wrapping up finish selections, including design options for facde. Using the architect's current model, she put together an analysis of facade areas, to help quantify the amount of materials associated with each option. (We'll have to report later how how the project budget is looking!)

0 3 F R O M M O D E L T O R E A L I T Y
This week at Marlborough Hospital Cancer Pavilion, Tocci removed the staging from the LINAC vault. Over
the next week, we will be adding underground conduit and plumbing per our
sketches, the electrician and Varian are reviewing the final layout. Attached
is a photo of our “blank slate” before all the equipment arrives. We are
standing 5’ below grade on the sub-slab, which is helpful in many ways, but
here are 2:

·It supports the staging that holds up the roof
while it is curing.·In an effort to be lean, provides a clean smooth
surface for efficient underground work.

Depending on your level of
SketchUp obsessiveness, you may or may not have heard about our recent Trimblification. Around the beginning of June, SketchUp
officially left Google to become a part of Trimble. All you really need to know
is that this is unequivocally a good thing for everybody. SketchUp's future is
brighter than it's ever been, amazing new things are on the way, and the team
(almost all of which accompanied the product to Trimble) is doing great. Best of all, we're focused in a way we
haven't been in years: on our users, on new features, and on helping SketchUp
to become everything you -- and we-- have always wanted it to be.

Additionally, last week, Trimble announced integration between SketchUp and Trimble Field Link - basically, we could do total station layout from a SketchUp model (if it were accurate enough...).

0 7 S O M E T H I N G T O R E A D
Dr. Atul Gawande, the Checklist Manifesto author, wrote a great piece in the New Yorker that made my brain swirl with thoughts of innovation, standards, systems, and quality for AEC. I haven't fully synthesized, but wanted to share the article anyway. Look forward to hearing anyone's thoughts!

Sign up to receive my posts via email to get this (and other) resource.

Privacy Guarantee: I will never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

About

I am the Director of Service Design + Strategy at Tocci Building Companies, overseeing VDC implementation, design management, integrated project delivery, and professional services. I have played a key role in innovative projects within Tocci and across construction industry, including the award-winning Autodesk AEC Headquarters IPD project.